Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to clarify that I'm not moving any amendment. What I'm asking is that the chamber does not support part (1) of the amendments by the government, because it introduces an uncertainty that Senator Pratt herself has raised questions about today. Let's just understand what's happening here: Labor are capitulating to Facebook and Google. They want to be an alternative government but they're not prepared to stand up to two big international corporations. I've said many, many times before that I'd love to have a strong opposition because I think it makes government better. But, unfortunately, we simply don't have that. I'm not asking for anything to be added to this legislation; I'm asking about the offending provision that talks about a significant contribution, which creates a real possibility that smaller media entities and, indeed, regional media entities will not be protected or get the benefit of being able to negotiate with these very large behemoths of companies.

It's disappointing, but I understand, and everyone also needs to understand, how this works. The government has introduced a last-minute amendment and the Labor Party can't actually react in that time frame because they have to take things back to the minister, who is not in this place, and interact, and then they have to take it to caucus. They are a large organisation that is not nimble and is unable to react to what has happened, and the government has just played them. The government has just played the Labor Party, introducing this at the last minute so that Labor has no ability to think this through and come to a decision. That's exactly what's happening here and it's very disappointing.